Each day a great number of electronic equipment are used, for which equipment control signals often are needed or wanted. For this purpose specially adapted control units are often used. Examples of such control units are keyboards for computers, remote controls for TV-sets, stereo recorders or other electronic apparatus, key pads on mobile phones and calculators, etc. Consequently, the term control unit refers both to such that are integrated with the apparatus they are adapted to transmit control signals to, and such control units that can be communicatively connected to different apparatuses for transfer of control signals.
The type of control units referred to is more precisely such that include some form of data input means, e.g. press-down keys, rotary controls, switches, etc. In most cases these data input means are equipped with visual indicators devised to present an indication of the control signal the control unit is devised to emit at the activation of the data input means. In general, the visual indicators consist of pre-printed or raised markings. On a keyboard, symbols are used that directly indicate which character the control signal will be interpreted as by the existing computer program in the computer the keyboard is adapted to control. For example, if the “A” button is activated in a text editing program, the character a or A will be shown on the computer screen. Furthermore, certain buttons of the keyboard are devised with indicators that refer to a function or action that is commanded by the control unit at the activation of said button. This concerns the function keys, but also, for example, the return key and the arrow keys. Further, there are on a keyboard a number of keys that will activate alternative actions or characters when pushed simultaneously, in combination with one another, or with other keys. These keys include Shift, Alt, Ctrl and Alt Gr. In some cases these alternative characters are shown with separate indicators on the keys, e.g. all the characters that are activated through a simultaneous holding-down of the upper numeric row and Alt-Gr on a regular PC-keyboard.
Already with two characters indicated on one key, it may be difficult to find the characters one is seeking, even though it is shown on the key. If three or more characters are indicated on the keys, the general appearance of the keyboard will fail to be lucid. A key with several characters implicate, apart from having additional characters on the keyboard, that the characters must be smaller to fit on the key. Alternative characters and functions that are not expected to be used in a greater extent are therefor often not indicated.
On mobile phones, e.g., which have a tendency to become smaller and smaller, there is often both a number and between three and four letters indicated on each key, which key is often very small, around half a centimetre. As a result thereof, the characters indicated on the key become very small, and it is both difficult and time-consuming to write messages with the key pad of the mobile phone. Similar problems exist for most non-stationary control units. One problem is that the aim of making the control units small and flexible to use, in some cases becomes the clean contrary to the aim of designing a control unit which is able to emit a large number of different control signals, whereby the manufacturers often have to compromise.
A solution to this problem that is often used is the use of a menu system on the display of the apparatus the control unit is devised to control. This concerns for instance both computers and mobile phones, but also TV-sets. This basically enables an unlimited range of functions or characters per key, but a consequence thereof is that the indication of which control signals will be activated is shown on another place than on the key.
Another problem related to data input means having visual indicators is that it is predefined during manufacturing which indicators are devised on each key, rotary control, etc. If one only uses some of the existing keys, e.g. on a keyboard, the user has to accept the fact that they may be scattered all over the keyboard. It would of course be desirable if these keys could be arranged on suitable places, for example gathered together in a group or as an optional fingering. If one uses a computer program devised to interpret some keys as special commands, it would also be desirable if it were possible to indicate this as accurately and clearly as possible. This concerns e.g. computer-games or TV-games. Further, it would be desirable to be able to rearrange these special commands to optional keys. The problems with work-related injuries which are more and more apparent and related to working with a mouse pointer, make it desirable to transfer more and more functions and characters to the keys.
In computer software, often in the operative system, there are decoding systems that are devised to decide how the pressed buttons on the keyboard should be interpreted. These decoding systems are often adjustable so that different keyboard configurations can be enabled. Thus, it is possible, for instance, to change the alphabet from Roman to Cyrillic, or to Japanese characters. However, a reconfigured keyboard becomes difficult to master since the indications on the keys remain unchanged.
In WO97/45794, a computer without a traditional keyboard is shown, and the computer is instead devised with two screens. One screen is used for data input, for example by direct writing on the screen through the use of a suitable pen unit. The screen can also be devised to show pictures and functions of a keyboard where even different alphabets can be used. One inconvenience with the presented solution is however that the feeling of working with separates keys is lost, at which one must be very accurate to guarantee that the fingers do not glide out of the desired finguring. Another inconvenience is that the input screen must be of a touch-screen type, which is considerably less robust than traditional keys.
The object of the present invention is, thus, to supply control units with data input means that overcome the problems with the prior art as mentioned above.
One aspect of the object is to supply a control unit which in a simple way can be configured to be adapted to different users or purposes.
An additional aspect of this object is to supply a control unit having a limited number of data input means and being arranged to emit a large number of different control signals without limiting the accessibility to the corresponding characters and functions.